This gentilic designates the clan descended from Shillem, son of Naphtali. It appears in the wilderness census recorded in Numbers, where each clan within each tribe is enumerated. The term uses the standard Hebrew pattern for forming clan or family names by adding the '-ite' ending to the ancestor's name. The definite article 'the Shillemite' indicates the collective group—all descendants of Shillem—rather than a single individual, functioning as a clan designation within Naphtali's tribal structure.